Kevin Carey watches libertarian thinking on education policy descend from vouchers to a preference for tax credits, which will work like vouchers except be much more regressive. And of course that’s the problem with relying on an ideological movement that doesn’t believe there should be public services for advice on how to organize your public services. Once public schools have been replaced by vouchers and vouchers have been replaced by tax credits, the next logic step is to reduce the size of the credits and just have lower taxes overall.

People with the means and inclination to send their kids to a good school can do so, and families lacking such means or inclination can send them to a bad one or have them go out and get a job. That, after all, is the essence of freedom and who could be against that? Besides which, everyone knows that the lower tax rates resulting from the end of public education will produce more economic growth and benefit the poor in the long run.

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